February 28, 2017

Today Tuesday is White Tuesday, so the day where you in preparation for the fast will use up all your wheat flour and milk in your kitchen. Milk and flour is some of the main ingredients in pancakes, so therefore White Tuesday is also known as Pancake Day.

Therefore I am sharing some pancake recipes with you for your own celebration of Pancake Day.

February 27, 2017

As a "thank you very much for your time" to my fellow rowers for rowing together with me during the season of 2016, so I yet again managed to cross the magic figure of 1500 km required for a "Gold Ore" (actual I rowed 1531 km in 2016), I invited the rowers, who have spend the most time together with me in the rowing boat, for lunch yesterday.

Actually if you estimate, that you row 6 km per hour - 1531 km equals 255 hours of rowing last season or 10 days and 15 hours spend in a rowing boat in rain, wind or sunshine.

February 26, 2017

Today it is Shrovetide Sunday (Fastelavnssøndag) here in Denmark. What does it mean ? It means, that we will be eating buns with various types of filling. .

Shrovetide bun are connected with fasting, which starts 49 days before Easter. And when in the fast period you are not supposed to eat meat and wheat flour as well as not drink milk or alcohol. So before the fast started there was big parties, where you would indulge in these foods. Fastelavnssøndag (Shrovetide Sunday) and the following Monday were the last days, where you could eat meat. The following Tuesday was the last day of eating wheat flour, where wheat buns were baked and eaten. This White Tuesday is also known as Pandekagedagen (Pan Cake Day) again relating to the use of wheat flour in pan cakes.

The traditional Danish "fastelavns"/Shrovetide song is like this:

Fastelavn er mit navn Shrovetide is my name

Boller vil jeg have Buns I would like to have

Hvis jeg ingen boller får If I get no buns

Så laver jeg ballade When I will make trouble

Boller op, boller ned Buns up, buns down

Boller i min mave Buns in my tummy

Hvis jeg ingen boller får If I get no bunsSå laver jeg ballade When I will make trouble

This I have been baking these Shrovetide buns with caramel sauce using a recipe from the weekly magazine Søndag (issue 50/2016).

Afterwards add in the flour and butter in the mixing bowl. Knead the dough together on speed 2 for 5-8 minutes.

Let the dough raise either cold night over or warm for 1½ hour.

Divide the dough into 12 portions.

On the flatten bun dough a teaspoon full of caramel sauce is placed.

Fold the dough together around the filling - fold it close together

Place the bun up-side-down on the baking plate.

Other option is to make a hole in the middle of bun dough, where the caramel sauce is filled into. However, this did not work at all, during the baking the bun raised and the caramel sauce was flowing everywhere !!!

February 25, 2017

Tomorrow it is Shrovetide Sunday (Fastelavnssøndag) here in Denmark. What does it mean ? It is the peak day for eating Shrovetide buns, until you can not stand the sight of these very rich and fatty buns for another year.

Shrovetide bun are connected with fasting, which starts 49 days before Easter. And when in the fast period you are not supposed to eat meat and wheat flour as well as not drink milk or alcohol. So before the fast started there was big parties, where you would indulge in these foods. Fastelavnssøndag (Shrovetide Sunday) and the following Monday were the last days, where you could eat meat. The following Tuesday was the last day of eating wheat flour, where wheat buns were baked and eaten. This White Tuesday is also known as Pandekagedagen (Pan Cake Day) again relating to the use of wheat flour in pan cakes.

The traditional Danish "fastelavns"/Shrovetide song is like this:

Fastelavn er mit navn Shrovetide is my name

Boller vil jeg have Buns I would like to have

Hvis jeg ingen boller får If I get no buns

Så laver jeg ballade When I will make trouble

Boller op, boller ned Buns up, buns down

Boller i min mave Buns in my tummy

Hvis jeg ingen boller får If I get no buns

Så laver jeg ballade When I will make trouble

If you have no clue, what kind of Shrovetide Bun to bake tomorrow, please look below for further inspiration.

February 19, 2017

I recently been on a business trip to Helsinki, where I as usual travel up with an almost empty suitcase and return back home with a suitcase full of plenty of shopping of various kinds such as Fazer chocolate, sweet treats like to Germany Christmas cookies (on sale), French cookie and English Rose tea, which all made into my suitcase due to the items being in some wonderful metallic tins.

A ceramic Christmas/Winter fairy light chain was also among my shopping, which I found at Madeby Helsinki selling goods of local crafts workers. The ceramic work is created by Mvinkaa,where I already have this green ceramic vase.

Finally I also did some cloth shopping at both Aino and Marimekko. Actually I do most of my cloth shopping, when I am in Finland, as I like the design, the big selection and the lower price (compared to Denmark).

February 14, 2017

A small kiss for Valentine with a lovely taste of raspberry. In Denmark the small meringue is a kiss, so this must be the right choice sweet treat for Valentine. I have this recipe for my Valentines kisses Mette Blomsterberg små kys.

Raspberry meringue (kiss): - plenty

50 g egg white

150 g sugar

0,25 dl freeze dried raspberry

red food colour

Whip the egg whites airy, but not stiff. Add in the sugar little by little, while whipping. Keep whipping until the mass is stiff and tough.